An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American, and we absorbed almost in the air a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-Sixties...We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise - and freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection.
We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important.~ Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation, January 12, 1989

Professional Development with the Annenberg Presidential Learning Center

Our mission at the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center is the engage the future leaders of America in the study of our nation's democratic processes with the aim of developing proactive, informed, educated, and conscientious citizens and leaders. One of our major goals to achieve this mission is to promote excellence in the development and distribution of civic edcuation content. Our professional development sessions serve this purpose. We work with scholars,museums, history focused non-profits, and experienced teacher leaders to bring you the very best in free professional development opportunities here at the APLC. It is our hope that these sessions encourage you to find new ways to leverage standards, curriculum, and framework to help prepare students for college, career, and citizenship.

About this Wiki

This wiki serves as a space for us to curate multi-media resources shared during our professional development programs. It's an easy way to keep documents, lesson plans, videos, audio clips, and links all in the same place. While we post some of the materials here, wikis are, by their nature, a collaborative space. So teacher participants are invited to share their own favorite resources and ideas as well.


Disclaimer

• The wikispaces pages created by the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center are designed to serve as a place for our education team to gather and share print, internet, and audio/visual resources with government, social studies, civics, and history educators from across the country. A wiki environment is, by design, a place where multiple editors and contributors are free to add, edit, and manipulate content. We believe in the ability of American teachers and educators to collaborate and share resources that have proved helpful in their classrooms with the ultimate goal that each and every one of the students who passes through our classrooms will emerge better prepared to be an active participant in the American democracy. Because of the open nature of the wiki environment, we do not officially condone or endorse any of the content offered on these pages
• The expressed opinions, informational content and links displayed on these wikispaces web pages do not necessarily reflect a position or policy of the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center or its affiliates. No official endorsement by the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center of the viewpoints expressed on these wikispaces web pages should be inferred.